Perspective: Trying to tame the teardown

My street is a microcosm of the challenge of new development in our city and its balance with the historic character of our neighborhoods.

The concern for St. Augustine is that, like other American small cities prized for their charm and quality of life, profit-motivated developers move in to buy up smaller homes, tear them down and build "McMansions" which don't fit the historic character of the neighborhood. This concern prompted our City Commission to set aside $60,000 toward a consultant review and recommendations to update our zoning codes.

Fullerwood Drive is bringing forth great examples of the cause, the effect and some solutions.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation two years ago published, "Protecting our Historic Neighborhoods: Taming the Teardown Trend." A copy is available in our Neighborhood Council Office. Here's how it describes the economics:

"Real estate agents and developers use the 'Rule of Three.' If you can sell a finished new home for about three times what you paid for the property, a teardown will pay off.

"A developer finds a 1,350-square-foot 1920s house and purchases it for $270,000. He then pays $30,000 to demolish the house, spends another $400,000 to build a new 4,000-square-foot house and sells it for $800,000 -- just about three times what he paid for the property. After deducting $700,000 for the costs of acquisition, demolition and construction, the developer is left with a handsome $100,000 profit."

Fullerwood is a typical 1940s-50s residential neighborhood, with an eclectic mix of ranches, bungalows, and colonials; with an occasional Mediterranean influence.

Sally and I purchased our "retirement home" on Fullerwood, a ranch-style, in 1999 for $105,000. Last year a drive-by appraisal put it at $208,000, and a Realtor recently said it should be crowding $300,000 today.

Across the street, a builder put up a 2,500-square-foot two-story home this year and sold it for $497,600. Another home is under construction down the street which we're told will go on the market for more than $500,000, and the site's being prepared for a third, up our street. Two were vacant lots, the third a teardown.

What's unique -- and to me refreshing -- is that, while each is a lot of house and not much of the traditional yard for this area, the style better fits our neighborhood. Builders here are showing that new homes can be wrapped in vintage rather than the tired Mediterranean revival with formula tile roof and towers.

Another, sort of backhanded, benefit happening in our neighborhood is sharply escalating real estate values. Local historian David Nolan has noted that poverty is traditionally the greatest preserver of historic structures. Folks can't afford to tear down and rebuild.

Today, on our street, it may be happening at the upper end. Down the street, a 2,100-square-foot ranch, built in 1948, sold last year for $185,000. It's back on the market today for $369,900, twice last year's purchase price. If we use the Rule of Three, the teardown builder will have to sell his McMansion replacement for more than $1 million.

Nearby, a 1925 bungalow-style purchased in 1999 for $130,000 is on the market today for $453,000.

The downside, of course, is neighborhoods being converted from homes to cash cows, and in many areas of our city, elderly and low-income folks grabbing quick offers of $100,000 for the homestead cottage, to be turned out into a marketplace of mega-priced homes.

Solutions are complex. One is through updated zoning regulations. Another is conservation or preservation districts. Without question, the best is public/private cooperation, with builders who hold the quality of life and desires of our community on at least an equal footing with the bottom line.

Over the past year our city staff, with citizen input, has been working with the Sebastian Inland Harbor development team to bring out the best in those plans. Their architects have designed a multistory retail/loft complex along Lorida Street in turn of the century style, better representing the diversity of our city's history.

It's been a pleasure working with developers who can think beyond the tired mindset of the typical, cookie-cutter Mediterranean Revival.